Bike Station shop counting cost of major fire

A CITY cycling charity is counting the cost after a fire tore through its recycling shop in the early hours of Monday morning destroying the doors and several items of stock.

Fire crews were called to The Bike Station, located on Causewayside in Newington, at 1.10am to tackle the blaze after residents reported seeing flames leaping from the roof.

A “landmark” 50,000th bike recycled by the charity was among the items destroyed, which also included a number of electric bikes and the shop’s doors, days before the charity was due to celebrate its 15th anniversary at the weekend.

In a post on Facebook Chris Horne, chairman of the charity, said: “Sadly our shop is out of action, and will be for some time. However, our mechanics are working hard and we will have a limited trading operation from our warehouse (at the top of the Causewayside yard) in the next couple of days.”

“Our big job today is assessing the damage, getting access to the premises - which may be difficult due to suspected asbestos - getting the insurance process started, and getting basic back office functions running again.”

A fire service spokesperson said the cause of the fire was as yet unidentified.